When I was young I loved my mother. She used to tell me riddles all the rime and I loved riddles. Looking back I know that most of them were created purely for my entertainment. However, there was one riddle that I remember that stood out from the rest. It went like this, “what walks on two legs but is most like an animal, what talks like us but is impossible to understand, what thinks like us but bends all its thoughts on the thing we fear most.” This question left me perplexed and when I asked my mom what the answer was she simply smiled and said I would find out when I was older.
Now I’m older, I despise my mom. It started when I was ten years old. My mom began to ignore me; whenever I wanted to play with her she would brush past me saying she had work to do. I was old enough to understand that she didn't job and since I didn't have a dad I would always be alone in the house. My mom always left the house at night. She always told me it was related to her work. Her work also incorporated the basement. Every morning my mom would lock herself in the basement and whenever I asked what she was doing she would reply in a harsh voice, “work, now leave me alone!” I would always obey her and leave the doorway but as I got older I got more curious. As I entered my “rebellious” stage of life I always argued with my mom. Whenever she brushed passed me I would criticize her. Whenever she said she said she had to go to work I would insult her on how she’s so lazy and stupid. She never liked that.
One day I tried to follow her into the basement where she “worked”. She caught me of course. I never could sneak up on her; she always sensed me or something. She looked so angry I was actually quite scared she would hit me; She didn’t though, instead she told me slowly and solemnly to go to my room and go straight to bed. I didn't argue that time; I walked up to my room and slept. It seems I slept for a long while. I woke up at night to the sound of the softest footsteps imaginable. I sat up and heard the imperceptible steps suddenly stop. I slowly looked around. Nothing, I lay back again and closed my eyes but then,
Tap.
Tap.
Tap
I sit up again, I still see nothing. This time I do not lie down. I stand and go to turn on the lights. Out of the corner of my eye I see a shadow emerge. It lunges at me and I fall under its weight. It’s my mother. I see her maddened eyes. I throw her off of me, I'm not as weak as i look. She yells at me but i do not turn around. Driven by fear i throw myself out of my room and down the stairs. I can hear her pounding after me. It is neither fear nor adrenaline that propels me to the basement but sheer instinct. I close the door behind me and turn around. I cant see anything. I turn on the lights. Slowly, my finger flicks the switch. I can hear my mom outside banging at the locked door. I have found her work. Her "work". Her job, the thing that puts dinner on the table.
A pile of mutilated bodies sit in front of me. Severed arms lay to the sides. Human faces hang on lines of nails. I cant talk. I cant scream. I only stare.
I know the answer to the riddle now. That one riddle, how did it go?
"What walks on two legs but is most like an animal, what talks like us but is impossible to understand, what thinks like us but bends all its thoughts on the thing we fear most.” The answer.
A Murderer.
i practiced a bit in horror
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